LinuxMusicians

Hmm... "All the time" and "Quite frequently" sound like a bit too much for me, but I do use GIG and SFZ to some extent, along with WAV samples.

This is worrisome because Carla is all I have for now.

I have this 'ls16' you speak of, but Carla won't find it. Running it on the command line is one of the most difficult things I have tried to do on Linux bar compiling a kernel.
I don't believe there is any hope I will ever understand people who think that I'll even know what an 'osc url' is much less remember this or that one 'osc url' whenever I want to run an application... or a sampler.

The only other sampler I have is for Windows and it only plays WAV files.

The sampling life is not very easy in Linux Land.

The only GIG format sample that I use is the Maestro Concert Grand, but I have been looking for a replacement. I'm even considering recording with a real piano. I wouldn't be disappointed if GIG support was dropped.

Edit: Just curious, which SFZero implementation are you using? There are several forks. I remember being disappointed that SFZero doesn't support some SFZ opcodes that are supported by LinuxSampler. I was considering contributing some code to SFZero, but I got lost when trying to make sense of all of the forks.

Michael Willis wrote:The only GIG format sample that I use is the Maestro Concert Grand, but I have been looking for a replacement. I'm even considering recording with a real piano. I wouldn't be disappointed if GIG support was dropped.

The salamander grand is an alternative (https://rytmenpinne.wordpress.com/sound ... grandpiano). There's also the NBO refined version called the little lizard (http://www.bandshed.net/sounds/sfz/Litt ... _LSfix.zip). I'd be curious about your thoughts on them as I have my opinion about the Salamander vs Maestro.

Sorry falktx for hijacking the thread. I'm in the same boat as Michael so I commented.

ssj71 wrote:The salamander grand is an alternative

I'll have to try the Salamander (or Little Lizard) again. As I recall, the sound wasn't as crisp as I wanted from a concert grand piano. I do remember thinking that the Little Lizard was a great job at reducing the size without compromising its sound. I have had multiple people recommend the Salamander, one even much preferred it over the Maestro Concert Grand, so I should probably test it out again. Maybe my tastes will be different this time.

Luc wrote:Hmm... "All the time" and "Quite frequently" sound like a bit too much for me, but I do use GIG and SFZ to some extent, along with WAV samples.

This is worrisome because Carla is all I have for now.

I have this 'ls16' you speak of, but Carla won't find it. Running it on the command line is one of the most difficult things I have tried to do on Linux bar compiling a kernel.

Code: Select all

$ /usr/lib/dssi/ls16/ls16_gui 
usage: /usr/lib/dssi/ls16/ls16_gui <osc url> <plugin dllname> <plugin label> <user-friendly id>

I don't believe there is any hope I will ever understand people who think that I'll even know what an 'osc url' is much less remember this or that one 'osc url' whenever I want to run an application... or a sampler.

The only other sampler I have is for Windows and it only plays WAV files.

The sampling life is not very easy in Linux Land.

Look for ghostess in your repo. It will open ls16 as a plugin from the command line and gives you the gui as well.

you can do something like

$ ghostess ls16-dssi.so


and it will open to a small popup with a button marked UI. Press this and the magnificent interface that is LS16 will open.

Ghostess assumes your folder containing dssi's is in the usual places.

I have given up on carla for the linuxsampler problems and the restriction of one instrument per plugin. (no matter how many midi channels it has carla plays them all at once, so it's one midi channel per strip/plugin instance as far as i can tell and with experimenting). It's fine for those users who might have 10 or twelve single instruments on separate tracks, but for us folk who use herds of instrument articulations per instrument Carla is not designed to cater for that workflow.

I use:

A) Reaper with linuxsampler instances as plugins, saved as Reaper presets. You need to build these one at a time, as Fantasia and Qsampler will not open for each plugin instance selected by track. They'll only allow you to edit the first instance. So if you go down this path, you'll add a track to Reaper, add linuxsampler as a vst plugin, open Fantasia/Qsampler, add your instruments to each midi channel, save the track as an fx preset first, then as a Reaper track preset. When you've done this, you shut Fantasia/Qsampler down (i opened them in a terminal), then remove the track.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Be patient. It does work, and Reaper does remember what you've done. Best of all, there are actions for switching channels in Reaper, and i utilize the 16 pads on the top of my MPK88 to switch channels to the articulation i want for the track/instrument selected. As an example, i have two tracks for my 1st violins because i have more than 16 articulations.

You can also build midi instrument maps in linuxsampler as use these in your plugin instances. Then switch artics using programme changes. Repear will also faithfully record keyswitch data, if your gig is multi instrument.

I have over 178 Reaper presets created this way, and linuxsampler runs just fine even with all of them loaded. (My box has 64GB of ram)

B) Lately, Muse has improved further, and i have Muse3 installed as a backup. Muse does DSSI by default, BUT, ls16 will not save any instruments you have loaded in an instance. (Tim says DSSI doesn't do this, if i understood him correctly).
However, you can use LV2 quite successfully, using the same patient building process i described above.
I hope Tim finds a way around the saving preset DSSI conundrum, because it would be a lot easier to open the LS16 UI in Muse, per instance, load the instruments, and save them as a preset.

Hope this helps.

Alex.

p.s. I have a lot of gig libraries, including some big orchestral sets. They're still as valid as anything else, and linuxsampler gives us the chance to keep using them. The samples are the same recordings, yes? I have a couple of Kontakt libs, but i've given up on them for their vehement anti-linux stance, and the sometimes yes sometimes no nature of using Wine. It was worth leaving all this stress behind, imho.

I respectfully urge anyone still using gig files to continue to do so. One day we'll have a proper plugin UI (LV2 and VST) for the mighty Linuxsampler, and all the effort i described above will diminish to something normal.

If i could code, and i'm no spring chicken, it'd be done already, and we'd all be swimming in Vegan Cream and Strawberries.

alex stone wrote:I have a lot of gig libraries, including some big orchestral sets.

Are these big orchestral gigasampler libraries still available somewhere? I've tried to find gig format orchestral samples, but it seems like all of the commercial producers have discontinued those products in favor of ones that require Kontakt or ARIA or something. I don't really want to be tied down to software that doesn't support Linux, so I opt not to buy those products.

Michael Willis wrote:

alex stone wrote:I have a lot of gig libraries, including some big orchestral sets.

Are these big orchestral gigasampler libraries still available somewhere? I've tried to find gig format orchestral samples, but it seems like all of the commercial producers have discontinued those products in favor of ones that require Kontakt or ARIA or something. I don't really want to be tied down to software that doesn't support Linux, so I opt not to buy those products.

Not really as new. Some lib manufacturers will sell them as legacy products, but usually disclaim any service obligations as well. Sometimes this works ok, and sometimes not. I bought Symphony of Voices as a legacy product, and the producer Eric told me he wouldn't support it as it was already legacy. I accepted this, and have a fine library as a result, which i converted from the original AKAI format, to GIG.

If, for example, you wanted to buy the VSL symphonic cube, in GIG format, you could ask on their forum, as VSL are ok with a license transfer, for a fee. Some devs are not, and don't permit sell ons, but most are quite reasonable.

https://www.vsl.co.at/community/forums

I've also had a good run with Dan Dean, from whom i bought his excellent woodwinds. He was really cool with me buying gig format.

dandeanpro.com

I still keep an eye out myself for opportunities. I have almost two complete orchestral sets, plus a lot of smaller stuff i've bought as native gig, or converted. Project Sam brass in GIG format is one i've been searching for, for a while. I don't know if they'll accept a license transfer as they've not answered my emails.

Just a couple more, and i'll be done. Really. Just a couple more...

You can also take a look in the For Sale forum section in vi-control.net.

https://vi-control.net/community/

See the classifieds at the bottom.

You can also ask there for a specific lib, and see if anyone's willing to sell. Be sure to check the license is valid with the lib manufacturer. I remember seeing the VSL cube for sale not so long ago. (I already have the Sonic Implants Symphonic Collection so i didn't need another big lib like that.)


Good Luck.

Alex.

@falkTX, did you embed FluidSynth for SF2?

I use GIG quite a bit. I have several piano libraries from SampleTekk in GIG format, all of which are much better than any open source piano library. Sampletekk discontinued GIG formats a while ago, but some of these pianos are available in SFZ, several of which I have, but the SFZ versions are not nearly as good as the GIG versions. However, for piano I also use Pianoteq which is now better than any of these sampled formats, so I will probably be using the SampleTekk GIG files so much in the future. I also use Dan Dean basses in GIG a lot, and are also the best bass samples I have yet found that work in linux. I mostly use linuxsampler+Ardour, though this method seems impossible to use without getting x-runs and I've considered moving to a Carla setup. However, I can always run linuxsampler as standalone if I use Carla loses GIG support.

I wonder if carla could use lmms's gig sampler code as a bass for compatibility. I think the licensing is pretty clear on it if you want to resurrect it. https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/tree/stabl ... /GigPlayer